Root Rot Closes Washington State Park

Lake Wenatchee State Park in eastern Washington state was closed Thursday (Aug. 26) after two seemingly healthy trees recently fell to the ground in the popular park’s south campground, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, reported.

The closure will continue until experts can get to the root of the problem.

State Parks staff and a pathologist from the Department of Natural Resources conducted an emergency assessment of the trees and concluded the failure was due to root rot that was not evident from outward appearances, said Sandy Mealing, state parks spokeswoman.

Staff also conducted assessments on trees in the north and south campgrounds and found additional trees infected with root rot. These trees were immediately removed. The root rot has been identified in grand fir and Douglas fir trees.

The 489-acre camping park has 12,623 feet of waterfront on glacier-fed Lake Wenatchee and the Wenatchee River about 18 miles northwest of Leavenworth.

A section of the south campground where the first trees fell over the past two weeks has been identified as a high-risk area and will not reopen for the remainder of the 2010 camping season.

Evaluations eventually could allow some campsites to be reopened, but parks officials gave no immediate assurances that would be before the Labor Day weekend.